Timeline of Malaysian Air’s Missing Flight 370

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- The disappearance of Malaysian
Airline System Bhd.’s Flight 370 has galvanized a multinational
search, spawned theories ranging from an accident to air piracy
and repeatedly dashed hopes that a resolution was at hand.

Below is a timeline of the events that began with the jet’s
departure from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing:

March 8:

12:41 a.m.: Flight 370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur to
Beijing with 239 passengers and crew members on board.

1:07 a.m.: Last transmission from the Boeing Co. 777-200ER
via an onboard text-and-data messaging system known by the
acronym Acars.

1:19 a.m.: Last communication from the cockpit. Initially,
officials said investigations showed the copilot said,
“alright, good night” as the last words. They released a
transcript on April 1 saying the last words were “Good Night
Malaysian Three Seven Zero.” Plane leaves Malaysian airspace,
heading across the Gulf of Thailand toward Vietnam.

1:21 a.m.: Radar transponder is switched off.

1:37 a.m.: Next Acars transmission is due, and never comes.

2:15 a.m.: Malaysian military radar spots an aircraft on
the west side of Peninsular Malaysia that isn’t using its
transponder. This development won’t be publicly known until
about a week later. The radar target is Flight 370, heading away
from its planned route.

6:30 a.m.: Flight 370 is scheduled to arrive in Beijing.

7:39 a.m.: China’s Xinhua news agency sends a flash
bulletin saying contact had been lost with Flight 370. Chinese
passengers make up about two-thirds of the people on board the
plane.

8:11 a.m.: Last satellite signal sent from the plane, known
as a “handshake,” is detected. This development won’t be known
for about a week.

8:19 a.m.: Evidence of a “partial handshake” between the
aircraft and the ground station eight minutes after the last
complete communication. This information was released March 25.

9:15 a.m.: No response from the aircraft when the ground
station sent the next message, indicating the plane was no
longer logged on to the network.

Initial search efforts focus on the Gulf of Thailand, where
twin oil slicks stir concern that they signal a crash on the
plane’s known route. The discovery that two passengers were
traveling on stolen passports triggers speculation that
terrorism may have been involved.

March 9: Vietnamese searchers find objects in the Gulf of
Thailand only to conclude later that they’re unrelated to Flight
370. Representatives for the U.S. National Transportation Safety
Board, Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing travel to
Malaysia to assist with the investigation. Speculation arises
that the plane deviated from its route.

March 10: Malaysia expands the search area farther into the
South China Sea after a plane alerted Hong Kong air traffic
controllers about possible debris. Vietnam searchers look for a
suspected window piece that was spotted from the air. The leads
prove fruitless. Searchers are unable to locate a yellow
inflatable object that a Vietnamese helicopter spotted earlier.

March 11: The search expands east again as suspected debris is
found off the coast of Vietnam. One theory evaporates as
authorities in Malaysia and Interpol say the passengers with
stolen passports probably aren’t associated with terrorism.

March 12: Malaysia says a criminal probe is looking into
hijacking and sabotage among other theories. Vietnam says
Malaysia hasn’t been cooperative in search and that the flight
may have turned west after last signal. News reports surface
that the co-pilot had guests in the cockpit in a previous
flight.

March 13: Speculation of the crash’s location moves toward the
Indian Ocean as evidence mounts that the flight continued away
from its route after controllers lost radar contact. The shift
in focus follows a brief flurry of optimism for a breakthrough.
Chinese satellite images show floating objects between the South
China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, and the Malaysian government
says later that they are unrelated to Flight 370.

March 14: The Andaman Sea becomes the latest empty lead in the
search. Malaysia looks at the possibility of pilot and crew
involvement, while Prime Minister Najib Razak postpones a trip
to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to oversee the hunt.

March 15: Satellite transmissions trace the missing airliner to
the Indian Ocean off of Australia. The pilots’ homes are
searched, and Najib says new information shows the flight was
intentionally diverted.

March 16: Searchers shift their sights to the Indian Ocean on
the basis of the satellite-signals evidence, which shows that
the plane operated for about seven hours after its last contact
with air traffic control.

March 17: Australia leads the search in the Indian Ocean while
the law enforcement probe spreads across multiple fronts.
Authorities discuss pilot suicide as one possibility, police
investigate a flight engineer who was a passenger.

March 18: The disappearance becomes the longest in modern
aviation history. The U.S. joins Australia in the Indian Ocean
search, scanning the waters across an area 1 1/2 times as big as
California.

March 19: The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation joins
Malaysia’s inquiry, which now includes a probe of data removed
from the pilot’s home flight simulator on Feb. 3. An analysis of
the 777’s probable fuel reserves helps narrow the Indian Ocean
search area to a patrol zone about the size of Italy, half as
big as a day earlier.

March 20: Satellite images of objects off Australia’s west coast
spur an air-and-sea search across a remote stretch of the Indian
Ocean. The photos were taken on March 16, and patrol craft
aren’t able to locate any wreckage.

March 21: A second day of air searches turns up nothing. An
analysis of so-called pings from the aircraft by satellite
provider Inmarsat Plc concludes that the plane maintained a
steady course and speed after radar contact was lost. The
assessment is consistent with details suggesting that the plane
was commanded, at least initially, from the cockpit and not
disabled by an accident.

March 22: As the mystery reaches the two-week mark and a day of
air and sea patrols produces nothing more promising than a
sighting of a wooden pallet, China announces that scrutiny of
satellite scans has revealed a new image of a large structure in
the search zone. The photo, captured on March 18, appears to
show an object measuring 22 meters by 13 meters floating 120
kilometers to the southwest of those in the March 16 images.

March 23: Malaysian authorities disclose that a French satellite
has found radar traces of possible debris, without saying when
and where the images were captured. Search efforts off Australia
fail to produce a breakthrough as more aircraft join the hunt
and ships with specialist equipment begin to arrive.

March 24: Najib, the prime minister, says Malaysia has concluded
the flight ended in the Indian Ocean “far from any possible
landing sites,” ruling out theories of a detour over Asia or an
island landing.

March 25: Families and friends of Chinese passengers protested
in front of the Malaysian embassy in Beijing. Malaysian Air and
Boeing’s records of MH370’s maintenance and crew are sought by a
law firm representing the uncle of one of the passengers as
Chicago-based Ribbeck Law Chartered petitioned for information
in Illinois state court.

March 26: Satellite images from Airbus Group NV taken on March
23 showed 122 potential objects in the southern Indian Ocean in
a 400-square kilometer area, about 2,557 kilometers from Perth.
Some were a meter in length, and others were as long as 23
meters, and some appeared to be bright.

March 27: Aircraft searching for the missing Malaysian jet
suspended their operations because of bad weather. Thai
satellite images taken on March 24 showed more than 300 objects
in the southern Indian Ocean, while a Japanese satellite
detected about a dozen pieces of possible debris in a March 26
image.

March 28: The three-week hunt for Flight 370 focused on a new
area in the Indian Ocean after radar data indicated the plane
probably flew a shorter distance than earlier estimated. The new
zone is about 1,100 kilometers to the northeast of the previous
search location. Ribbeck Law filed a second petition for data
and documents from Boeing and Malaysian Air, while its first was
thrown out by a judge.

March 29: Australian and Chinese ships recovered unidentified
objects from the Indian Ocean, the first time in the search that
material had been picked up. Malaysia and U.S. officials said
nothing unusual has been discovered on the pilot’s flight
simulator so far, though the FBI’s work won’t be complete for
another few days or a week.

March 30: The objects retrieved on March 29 were identified as
“fishing equipment and flotsam.” Malaysian Air said it will
fly family members to Perth only once it has been confirmed that
any wreckage found belongs to Flight 370.

March 31: Australian ship Ocean Shield departed for the search
area after being fitted with equipment to detect black-box
recorders with the hunt for the jetliner in its fourth week.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there was no time
limit on the search. Ribbeck Law’s second bid for Boeing and
Malaysian Air to turn over data and documents were also thrown
out by the same judge.

April 1: Malaysia released the full transcript of communications
between Flight 370 and Kuala Lumpur’s air traffic control, which
the government said revealed nothing abnormal. An Australian
official overseeing search operations said crews face an
extended mission because of difficult conditions and a lack of
information.